The medical report that President Miloš Zeman is unable to perform any work duties due to health reasons changes the post-election situation in the Czech Republic. Given his status, it is very likely that Zeman will lose some important powers, including the appointment of a new prime minister. The next Prime Minister should be appointed by the new Speaker of the House, who will be elected by the deputies after 8 November.
A few words from the report of the Central Military Hospital in Prague (ÚVN), in which President Miloš Zeman is being treated, were enough, and it is much clearer what the Czech Republic expects in the coming days and weeks. Speculation and speculation about the president’s health condition and his ability to manage post-election events in the Czech Republic were ended by the addressee of the ÚVN letter, Senate President Miloš Vystrčil (ODS) on Monday evening.
“In the opinion of the hospital, Miloš Zeman is currently unable to perform any work duties for health reasons,” he said in the first sentence, after which he continued in a similar spirit.
“In the opinion of the hospital, due to the nature of the disease, the long-term prognosis of the condition is assessed as extremely uncertain, and thus the possibility of returning to work in the coming weeks is assessed as unlikely,” said Vystrčil.
It is now up to the senators and deputies to deprive President Zeman of some powers. If so, he will remain president, but he will not be able to do a number of important tasks, such as appointing a prime minister. At the same time, it is clear from the statements of the legislators that they will try to proceed in accordance with Article 66 of the Constitution, which allows for the temporary removal of powers from the President, for example precisely because of serious health reasons.
This article sets out exactly what authority the president would lose. “On Tuesday, the Senate leadership will meet with the chairmen of the parliamentary groups to discuss the situation,” Vystrčil announced.
Voting in parliament
The meeting may end with an agreement that the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies will meet in the coming days, and these chambers will vote to remove some of the powers from the President. An absolute majority of the votes of senators and deputies is enough for something like this. The term of office of the current Members will end on 21 October. In the Chamber of Deputies, which will be elected a few days ago, they will have a majority of the parties that are already agreeing on joint governance. These are the ODS, the People’s Party and TOP 09 in the Together coalition and the coalition of Pirates and Mayors. These parties also have a majority in the Senate.
Senators from the organizing committee, who were present at the press conference on Monday, have already announced that they would agree with this variant of the solution. “All that remains is to activate Article 66,” said Senator Jiří Drahoš, for example.
According to political analyst Lukáš Jelínek, senators are ready to activate Article 66, but are waiting for the right moment. “This will be the establishment of a new Chamber of Deputies, which will take place on November 8,” he told Czech Television.
Who would have what powers
An important player in the coming days and weeks, however, will also be the outgoing Prime Minister Andrej Babiš. Once Article 66 of the Constitution is passed, Babiš will gain several presidential powers. He will represent the state externally, he will be the commander in chief of the armed forces, he can bestow and award state honors. Unless otherwise authorized by the other authority, it may also appoint a judge and order that criminal proceedings not be instituted and, if initiated, that they not be continued. He also has the right to grant amnesty.
Part of the President’s powers would also pass to the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies if Rule 66 were applied. He would be in charge of, for example, appointing a government or convening a meeting of the Chamber of Deputies. The president would be replaced by the two presidents until he was again able to hold office, or until his term expires in a year and a half – in March 2023.
How long the president’s powers would belong to the current prime minister, Andrei Babiš, would depend on how long his successor would be appointed. This will most likely be the current leader of the Spola coalition and ODS chairman Petr Fiala, who wished Zeman good health on Monday and at the same time described the information about his condition as very serious.
Fiala must first wait for the inaugural meeting of the new Chamber of Deputies, which should meet on November 8. At this meeting, both coalitions will try to elect a new Speaker of the House after the current one, Radek Vondráček (YES), who will also end his term of office in the leadership of the lower house on 21 October. However, he will continue to be a Member of Parliament. As soon as his successor succeeds him in the chair of the House of Commons, it is time for the Prime Minister to be appointed.
Fiala has several triumphs in her hands. The main thing is the fact that it will most likely be able to rely on a “comfortable” majority of deputies, namely 108. There is also a possibility that in the end it will have 104 legislators on its side, if the Pirates do not go to government. they have four members in the Chamber. Even so, Fiala would have an absolute majority. The second triumph of the leader Together is the fact that he is already negotiating about the government and has agreed with his partners that he will write a coalition agreement by November 8.
If everything went according to the plans of both coalitions, the newly formed government would appear before the Chamber of Deputies within 30 days after the appointment of Fiala and would have voted on the vote of confidence.
The election of the Speaker of the House is also in the hands of a coalition of Together and Pirates with the Mayor. Who it will be has not yet been agreed, the most speculation about ODS deputy Marek Bend and TOP 09 chairwoman Markéta Pekarová Adamová.
Mynář knew about the state of the president a week ago
The head of the Senate, Miloš Vystrčil, asked the management of the Central Military Hospital last week for a statement. He did so after requesting in vain similar information from Chancellor President Vratislav Mynář. The heads of the Office of the President of the Republic, like other people in the immediate vicinity of Zeman, refused to provide more information about the state of the president.
However, according to Monday’s announcement, Mynář already had known since October 13, how bad the president is. On that day, the hospital provided him with the same information as now to Vystrčil.
The report of the director of the Central Committee, Miroslav Zavoral, does not mention the diagnosis of the president. The latest official information is that Zeman was hospitalized due to problems related to his chronic illness. Hospital spokeswoman Jitka Zinke also said last week that the president was in a stable state. According to the findings of Aktuálně.cz, Zeman has advanced liver cirrhosis. This can often lead to thought disorder.
Mynář even took the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Radek Vondráček (YES), to the hospital on 14 October, who then described how well Zeman was doing. “Of course he’s sick, he’s weak. But I really talked to him normally. We talked, he was smiling,” Vondráček said last Thursday. At the same time, he showed the journalists a document to convene the inaugural session of the new Chamber of Deputies on November 8, which the president was to sign.
“When Mynář led Vondráček to the president, he already knew that the president was unable to perform his duties due to health reasons,” Vystrčil said on Monday.
The Central Military Hospital later issued a statement stating that Zeman’s attending physician, Director Zavoral, was unaware of the visit. In response, Vondrac said he had been escorted to the room by the police. However, she vehemently refused, saying that Vondráček was accompanied there by the castle chancellor Vratislav Mynář.
On Tuesday afternoon, Mynář held a press conference at Prague Castle, but only said that it was not possible to inform or request any information without the president’s consent. “Information on the state of health and the provision of information on the health of the President of the Republic are only available to the President and those of his family members,” he said.
However, Senator Jiří Růžička pointed out in the evening that politicians do not need to know the diagnosis, but whether the president is able to perform his function. “We never asked for an accurate diagnosis,” Růžička said.
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